‘Emergency! The Complete Series’ Blu-ray Review
Jack Webb is known mostly for his iconic role as Sargent Friday on the classic TV series Dragnet. However, he was an exceptional producer, director, and screenwriter. In 1968, he created the series Adam-12 and in 1970 Jack retired from acting and focused just on producing. In 1972, he co-created and produced the classic television medical drama series Emergency! For years fans had dreamed of seeing this classic series in HD. Well, the wait is finally over! Universal Home Entertainment has finally come through and released the entire series on Blu-ray for the first time ever!
Hit the streets with Squad 51 in Emergency!, the pioneering series that was the first to portray the real-life drama of those who devote their lives to saving others. With sirens blaring, dedicated paramedics Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) respond to the most desperate calls in the City of Angels. A heroic medical team, including Nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London) and doctors Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) and Joe Early (Bobby Troup) await them at Rampart Hospital, where life-and-death decisions are all part of a day’s work.
Emergency! was a wonderfully written and acted series, which still holds up over 50 years later. This series was so popular that not only did it last for 6 dramatic seasons, but it also had six TV movies to its resume. Universal Home Entertainment decided that if they were going to make a complete series set, it had to be the COMPLETE series. So, they included all six seasons and all six TV movies. That is 122 episodes and 6 movies spread across 28 Blu-ray discs.
These episodes have been transferred to Blu-ray in 1080p and are presented in their original full-screen format in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. No stretching of the picture here. The audio track is an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. There is also the option for English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the transfer here; after all, these episodes are over 50 years old. But I can safely say that Universal did a tremendous job cleaning up and transferring this series to Blu-ray. The picture is crisp and clean with no digital artefacts. The colours are bright and vibrant, and the reds of the trucks literally pop off the screen. The picture is so good you feel like you’re right there riding on the truck to the rescue.
Each season features different artwork, so you won’t lose your place when watching this series. Also, the inside cover of the Blu-ray has an episode list printed so you can recall where you left off last. That is always a huge plus.
As you can see from the picture above, this is a massive set. But I am glad that Universal put the work into giving this epic series a release it so richly deserves. In addition to all these amazing episodes and movies. This collection also has the bonus Adam-12 crossover episode included. That is pretty cool. I am sure there were many first responders who were inspired by this series in the 1970s. Well, now finding new life again in HD, maybe this series can inspire a whole new generation of future first responders.
If you love 1970s TV dramas, Emergency! is right up there on most people’s list as one of the best. And if you want to see it in spectacular quality, there is no better way than with this Blu-ray set.
***** 5/5
Emergency! The Complete Series is out now from Universal Home Entertainment.
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